Case Studies

How did we get rid of back and foot pain a patient had been suffering with for 4 years?

Case Report: Long Term Low Back, Hip and Left Foot Pain

Client’s Perspective

“I came to QuayPhysio with a pain in the underside of my left foot and also in the left side of my back. Both were quite severe and the pain had started to get me down after trying to deal with it for 3-4years. I was concerned I might have to quit my job and get a less active one as the pain was stopping me working.

The approach they took with me at QuayPhysio was unique in as much that they looked at my whole body rather than focusing on just the pain areas. This seemed to make sense as I had lots of areas that were causing me troubles.

My experience at QuayPhysio has been superb! From the receptionist phone call reminders the day before my appointment, to the warm welcome when you walk through the doors. From the cute little paper conical water cups for your drink whilst you wait all the way to the relaxing, calm, understanding, professional approach from the clinical team whilst treating my long term complaints.

My advice to anyone thinking of getting any aches and pains treated, no matter how long you’ve been suffering with them, would be as the Nike logo says, “Just Do It”! If you sort your body out everything else falls into place and lot easier. Money well spent. Do not suffer needlessly.

I cannot thank QuayPhysio enough for getting me back on track to living a life of good health and wellbeing.”

Case Report

So many people we see have multiple pain or problem areas and this gentleman is no different. Mr X is 40 and said he felt way older than that and wanted to do something about it. Having seen lots of people over the years and tried lots of things, his symptoms were still there to greater or lesser degrees.

Mr X had pain in his low back, hips and most acutely in his left foot that prevented him playing tennis, football, and walking in hard boots for work. Often the foot pain was worst with over head activities using his right hand. He also reported tight calf muscles which didn’t change with stretching.

There were some interesting things in his history, one being that ever since a child he often felt dizzy when standing. Mr X had been told he had arthritis in his ankles, hips and lower back. He has had numerous ankle sprains as a child like many of us.

When we assessed Mr X, we found he stood with most of his weight on the left side. So, his painful left foot was being loaded way more than the right. Funnily enough it was sore! We commonly see pain in regions that are being loaded in a way they weren’t designed for.

He also had lots of compression in his trunk from surrounding muscles. He used his arms under load all day with his job so this is no surprise We also found he couldn’t move his arms independently of his trunk. Every time he lifted them even a small degree he pushed his hips forwards and tilted backwards. No wonder his low back also had symptoms.

Finally, Mr X had very rigid feet. There was very little movement in his feet when he walked or squatted. His feet were more like trotters than moveable fluid springs that shock absorbed! No wonder his calf muscles felt tight as they were switched on all the time to hold his feet in this rigid position.

By correcting Mr X trunk position and his right foot, it allowed his weight to be evenly distributed on his feet and stopped the overloading of the painful left foot.

In order to resolve the symptoms we treated Mr X’s trunk to allow his arms and lower body to be able to move independent of this region. The moment his trunk was stacked over his feet any head fogginess or dizzy sensations went away. This alone was quite astonishing for him to feel. He had assumed the fogginess was due to being tired and his diet.

The final piece to the puzzle was allowing Mr X to better load his right foot and allow his trunk to be centred over both feet. A combination of manual techniques with movement and dry needling to release over active muscles in his lower leg released the tension they were causing in his foot and restored the spring and flexibility to this region.

Finally we trained his ability to move his arms, legs and neck independent of his trunk in normal daily activities such as squatting, lunging, reaching, pushing and pulling. We also trained a more optimal right foot position during these movements. This combined with some total body stretches enabled him to work in over head positions reaching with his right arm, fulling taking weight on his right leg. For the first time in years his left foot now doesn’t hurt at work!

Even more excitingly, Mr X feels his whole body moved better with more freedom and fluidity. Head fogginess and dizziness are a thing of the past too and he has way more energy. What a fab result!

Some interesting points are shown in this case.

Often the sore bit isn’t the bit that needs treating. It is the victim of other things not moving in an optimal way. The foot was having to work and be loaded in a way it isn’t meant to.

Mr X has no head fogginess when his trunk is more optimal aligned and moving.

He feels instantly better in all movement from treating the areas that were causing his left foot pain. We haven’t needed to specifically treat his hip or back pain. This has settled just like the foot pain did.

We still have some final training to do to ensure long term resolution of his symptoms but what a great start! Hooray!!

These sort of problems are ones we see all the time so if you feel ready to talk to us about your symptoms and problems we would love to hear from you and help you. Like Mr X says, “Just Do It!”.